Olav Tryggvason

Olag Tryggvason (963-1000) was the King of Norway from 995 to 1000, both succeeding and preceding Sweyn Forkbeard. He built the first church in Norway and founded Trondheim in 997, and he was one of the men most responsible for the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity.

Biography
Olav Tryggvason is a man shrouded in mystery and legend; his feats were recorded in Norse sagas and Anglo-Saxon poetry, with some of these sagas being of unknown authenticity. He was an alleged descendant of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and he served as a mercenary in Novgorod during his youth. Later, he would lead his own warband in raids on Britain, ranging from the Hebrides in the north to the Isles of Scilly in the south. In 991, he attacked the coast of England from East Anglia to Kent with 93 longships and thousands of troops, and he defeated and killed Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and most of his thanes at the Battle of Maldon. The English king Aethelred the Unready thought it more prudent to make a deal with the Vikings, and he baptized Olav a Christian in 994 and forced him to stop his raids, in exchange for giving him a hefty bribe in gold.

Olav turned his attention to Norway after becoming rich and famous, and he overthrew Jarl Haakon Sigurdsson of Lade and embarked on the Christianization of Norway through torture and massacre. His rise to power led to him becoming a threat to other Scandinavian rulers, and he was ambushed at sea by the fleets of Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, Jarl Eric Haakonsson of Lade, and King Olof Skoetkonung of Sweden. The battle of Svold was hard-fought, and he performed heroics aboard his great ship, the Long Serpent. However, he was eventually surrounded by his rivals, and he leapt into the sea to avoid being captured.